


Second Chances

by CelticGrace



Series: Isadora [1]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Best Friends, F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-10
Updated: 2014-05-13
Packaged: 2018-01-24 04:30:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1591769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CelticGrace/pseuds/CelticGrace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>James Vega and Isadora Santiago were best friends as children.  Seven years later, they're leading separate lives on opposite sides of the city, until a lost dog brings them together again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> From a list of AU prompts on tumblr, this is a combination of two: "cat/dog runs away and other person finds it" and a tweaked version of "bffs when they were little but one moved away and they run into each other again." 
> 
> Beta: Pixelatrix
> 
> Bioware owns the Mass Effect universe and all its characters. If you don't recognize a character, it's probably mine.

“You're late, little one.” Vido Santiago didn't need to look up from his laptop to know that his daughter Isadora had just walked into his inner office at Blue Suns Security. His secretary would have announced anyone else and Isadora usually took great pleasure in trying to sneak into the room undetected.

Today however, the sixteen-year-old sighed dramatically as she tossed her bag and jacket on the leather couch across from the desk and flopped down beside them. “Take it up with the Padre. He's the one who kept me after school.”

“Again?” Vido raised an eyebrow as he finally looked up from the e-mail he'd been reading. “What the fucking hell was his reason this time?”

“Language, Dad,” she chided. She gestured toward the top of the filing cabinet in the corner. “Put two dollars in the swear jar.”

He rolled his eyes but complied. “This was never meant for me,” he said as he put his wallet back in his pocket. “I started the thing to discourage your uncle when you were little, with his _bloody_ this and _goddamn_ that all the time. And no, I'm not putting another two dollars in the jar,” he added when she opened her mouth to protest. “Those were _examples_.”

“If it was really only for Zaeed, you'd have taken it down years ago. And you've made _me_ use it before.  It's only fair.” She folded her arms across her chest and glared at him until he added money for the additional offenses.

“All right, you've made your point. Now let's try this again,” he said, moving her messenger bag to sit beside her on the couch instead of behind his desk. “Why did Father Tobias keep you after school?”

She shrugged. “Same reason as always: to check on my home life, see if I'm doing okay.”

“Interfering son of a –”

“Daddy! It's bad luck to speak ill of a priest.”

“I'm sorry, but Tobias Shepard has _always_ been a pain in my a– side.”

“Maybe so, but you know damn well he's the only reason that I'm even alive right now.” She dug some change out of her bag and jumped up to toss it into the swear jar. “If he hadn't been at the church that night and opened the door –”

Vido sighed as he got up and crossed the room. “I know, little one.” He kissed the top of her head. “I'm forever grateful to the man for keeping you safe that night. But it will always be a sore spot with me how he, like Zaeed Massani, has never trusted me to raise my own daughter.”

She leaned up to kiss his cheek. “Well, I think you're doing a great job.”

He smiled. “Thank you, little one. I'm glad _someone_ thinks so.”

“Anyway, this time, the Padre didn't call me into his office on a whim, _just to talk_.”

Vido frowned. “He actually suspected something?”

She shook her head. “We had a sub in gym class. She saw the scar on the back of my shoulder and asked me about it, then apparently _took offense_ to the fact that I told her it was none of her goddamn business.” She huffed and went to get more change.

He put a hand out to stop her. “Consider that a free one. You... actually said that to her?”

She bit the inside of her lip and looked anywhere but at her father's face. “Maybe.”

“Did she take offense to the language or the message?”

“Probably both. She was exceptionally strict for a sub, especially –”

The rest of her sentence was interrupted by  _London Calling_ blaring out into the room from the vicinity of the couch.  She  sprinted across the room and quickly dug her cell phone out of her messenger bag and hit ignore.

“You'd only ever use that song for one person,” Vido said, narrowing his eyes at her. “Why is Zaeed calling you?”

She shrugged. “Dunno. Didn't answer the call, did I?”

“Isadora...”

She gathered up her bag  and jacket and headed for the door. “As you said, I  was late  getting  home . And I still need to take Ryu for a walk, so I'll just be going.”

“Vosque already walked all of the company dogs, an hour ago.”

“One, Ryu's _my_ dog, no matter how much you keep wanting to train him to be part of the pack; and two, he's still a puppy, so he needs more exercise than the rest anyway.”

Vido waved his hand dismissively  as he went back to his desk . “Fine. Go.  Obviously you love  the dog  more than you love me ,”  he said with a  mockingly  hurt tone that he knew she didn't b uy  for a moment. “But, will you at least  _try_ to be on time for dinner tonight?”

She grinned. “No promises. I'll call if I'll be late though.”

* * *

“You're just full of energy today, aren't you?” Isadora cooed as she tried to get her eight-month-old akita to stop bounding all over the kennel master's office so she could put his leash on. She needed to get out fast so she could call Zaeed back. The truth was, she _did_ know why he'd called, because he called every day, at exactly the same time. But usually she was either out with Ryu or back home doing her homework by then.

“I tried again today to take him out with the other dogs,” Vosque was saying as he leaned against the door frame, making absolutely no effort to help her. “Couldn't get him to stop snarling. I don't think he likes the other dogs.”

When she glanced back at him, she saw a dark gleam in his eyes as he watched her with Ryu, making her doubly glad she'd changed into a long-sleeve t-shirt and jeans from the blouse and plaid skirt that made up her school uniform. “Maybe it's not the dogs he doesn't like, Vosque. Could be – _mierda_!”

The brief seconds she'd taken her eyes off of her pup had been enough for him to become annoyed at the lack of attention so he'd pounced on her, knocking her flat on her ass. She quickly recovered, grabbed the ring on his brown leather collar and attached the matching lead before he could escape again.

Suddenly ,  Ryu's playful nature was gone, replaced by a more aggressive  and protective posture . Isadora  knew why before she'd even looked up . Vosque had finally  decided to be  _useful_ , as he'd  moved from his position at the door and was  walking toward her. She scrambled to her feet, blatantly ignor ed the hand he held out to her, and quickly led  her little ball of energy out of the office  so  n either man  n or beast  might do  anything they would  later  regret . 

Fifteen minutes later, Ryu was happily playing with a scruffy little dog half his size but who was clearly up to the challenge. Isadora shook her head with a laugh and dug her phone out of her pocket to call her uncle.

“Everything's fine, honestly,” she said when he asked why she'd ignored his call. “Just ended up staying after school, so I was still in Dad's office when you called. He was... less than amused.”

“I'll just bloody bet,” Zaeed muttered.

“What do you know about Darner Vosque?” she asked after they'd chatted for a few minutes about Tobias and his constant interest in her life.

“Wondered where that shady son of a bitch had got to. He's been around almost as long as the company; he was one of our first hires, long before you were born. Been in New York since before...” Zaeed sighed and Isadora knew he was thinking, as she had been off and on since the confrontation with the sub in gym class, about the circumstances that had forced him to move to London seven years ago.

“Well, now he's here,” she said after a prolonged and uncharacteristically awkward silence. “He replaced Tarak as the kennel master.”

“Interesting. Wonder what he did to get demoted,” Zaeed mused.

“Demoted?”

“He was _running_ the New York office, same as I'm doing here in London, and Vido there.”

“Oh. That explains a lot actually, the demoted thing, since he seemed bored or something with his job. He's been here about a month, but today's the first time I've interacted with him. Usually he's out with the other dogs when I come to get Ryu, but since I was late getting home, he was in his office instead. Ryu doesn't like him, snarled at him when he tried to take him with the rest, and again while I was there.”

“Smart dog.”

“So I noticed.” Isadora shuddered at the memory of being around Vosque. “The man seriously creeps me out. I'm going to try _very_ hard to not be delayed at school anymore, or just keep bugging Dad until he lets me keep Ryu in his office during the day.”

Zaeed chuckled. “It'll be a cold day in Hell before Vido lets a dog in his office. You're both lucky he let's him sleep in the house at night.”

“Yeah, I know. I still gotta teach Ryu not to growl at _him_.”

“Like I said, smart dog.”

Isadora sighed. “Zani, be nice.”

“Zani? Christ, you _are_ on a flashback kick today, sweetheart.” She hadn't called him by that, or any, nickname since just after he'd moved.

“Stupid Sister Mary Serena,” she grumbled. “If she hadn't noticed the scar...” she trailed off and sighed again. “It's just been a long day. And surprisingly, being out with Ryu hasn't helped clear my head.”

“Maybe if you were actually paying attention to him?”

She rolled her eyes. “Well forgive me for caring enough to return your call. 'Sides, I had to let him do his own thing for a bit. He had so much pent up energy when I went to get him, I'd have died of a heart attack if I'd tried to keep up with him.”

“I'm still bloody amazed Vido actually got you your own dog.”

“He gave him to me to _teach me responsibility_ or something, because apparently I was oh so irresponsible and reckless before that. But I think he does expect that one day Ryu will become part of the company pack. A delusion I've been trying to get his mind off of a little bit each day.”

Zaeed snorted derisively. “Good luck with that. If he's got his mind set on something, no one's going to change it.”

“Thanks for the confidence boost, _Zani_ ,” she said, sticking her tongue out at him. “I gotta go. I think Ryu's been left to his own devices long enough.”

“All right. I'll talk to you tomorrow, sweetheart. And watch your back around Vosque.”

“Definitely. On both counts. See you later.” She disconnected from FaceTime and started looking around the area as she put her phone away. She couldn't see either Ryu or the Benji look-alike he'd been playing with.

_Dammit, Ryu. Where the hell are you?_


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for the comment and kudos :)

“Izzy, where the hell you been, chica?” James Vega wasn't surprised to find the little mutt who'd adopted him and his uncle Emilio over the summer was proudly trotting into their backyard with yet another new friend in tow. He kept fixing the holes in the back fence and she kept finding, or making, new ones; and every time she did, she brought home more strays. They'd kept a couple at the house, the ones she seemed most _attached_ to; the rest they always took to the no-kill shelter Emilio ran. As he'd said on more than one occasion since she'd come into their lives, Izzy was a better dog catcher than the actual dog catcher who was the source of the rest of the shelter's animals; less grumpy too.

James did a double-take when he saw this particular _stray_ however. This wasn't the typical street dog Izzy usually associated with. He was a pure-bred akita for one, definitely well-cared-for and from a loving home for another. Izzy must have wandered further than usual, gone up to the dog park a few miles away. James knew it was a miracle neither of them had been hit by a car.

He slowly knelt in front of the newcomer, a puppy who still seemed to have a bit of growing to do, and calmly reached out to take hold of his collar. He knew if he showed any sort of fear, the dog was going to pick up on that and react. He thought he might get growled at, but the moment passed and the dog remained calm.

James didn't see an ID tag dangling with the vaccination tag, but upon closer inspection of the collar itself, he found a gold plate screwed in along the top, a name engraved in large script letters:

_Ryu._

“Your name's Ryu?” he asked, looking the dog in the eye.

The dog barked once and wagged his tail.

“Okay then.” James stood up and walked into the house to get Izzy's leash. He clipped it to Ryu's collar and started for the back gate. “Come on, you two. We're gonna take a little trip, see if I can figure out where you've been this afternoon and where Ryu came from.” Izzy gave him her best _A_ _re you kidding me?_ look and he laughed. “Sorry, we can't keep this one. He's gotta go home.”

Izzy whined but Ryu barked and wagged his tail again.

“See?”

Emilio was at the reception desk when James and his four-legged companions walked through the front door of Noah's Ark Animal Shelter. He could hear dogs barking excitedly in the kennels in the back as people checked them out.

“Brought me a new customer, _sobrino_?” Emilio asked, coming around to get a closer look.

James shook his head. “Not exactly. He's not a street dog. Found a name on his collar. Ryu.” Ryu wagged his tail again. “I brought him here because I figured a dog like that, with an expensive leather collar and all, he's probably chipped, right?”

Emilio smiled. “Smart thinking.” He took the leash from James. “Come on, Ryu. Let's see who misplaced you,” he said to the puppy as they walked into a back room.

“Careful,” James called after them. “He's a little hesitant at first. Seems to like me though.”

When they came out a couple of minutes later, Ryu was bouncing around and wagging his tail, but Emilio was no longer smiling. In fact, James thought his uncle looked downright grave.

“ _T_ _í_ _o_? What's wrong? Did he not have a chip?”

Emilio shook his head. “No, he has a chip and I found out who his owner is.”

“So, why do you look –”

“It's Isadora Santiago.”

Ryu barked and wagged his tail again at the mention of his mistress' name.

“ _Mierda_.” It had been years since James had heard the name Isadora Santiago. They'd been best friends in elementary school, back when his father was... when James still considered Josh Sanders to be his father. Now he just considered him to be the son of a bitch who ruined the lives of everyone he'd ever been associated with. He was pretty damn sure a lot of people felt that way, including the Santiagos.

A cold, wet nose pushing against his hand brought James out of his reverie. He glanced down to find Ryu sitting beside him, watching him expectantly.

“You're going to have to call her, James,” Emilio said. “Given how far we are from the park by Vido's office,” they both raised an eyebrow when Ryu growled, “Isadora's got to be worried sick.”

“She hates me, _T_ _í_ _o_. And now, I'd be coming in after all these years with her dog?”

“She doesn't hate you, James. She was understandably terrified of Josh. And her father didn't know who to trust anymore, so he cut ties to a lot of people, including anyone who was connected to Josh.” Emilio sighed. “But I doubt that was about you, _sobrino_. That was me.”

“Oh.”

“As for Ryu, you're bringing him back to her. She can't hate you for that.” He held up Izzy for a moment. “You may want to leave out the fact that you named your own fuzz ball after her though.”

James rolled his eyes. “Thanks, _T_ _í_ _o_. Very helpful.”

* * *

“You did that on _purpose_ , James Vega.” The voice on his phone was teasing, but the words sounded accusatory.

“ _Hola_ to you too, Isadora.” James was sitting at a pet-friendly cafe with Ryu half-way between the shelter and Vido's office, waiting for Isadora. “I did _what_ on purpose?”

“You specifically chose a meeting place that would force me to walk past –”

“ _Lo siento_. I swear, I didn't... we'll be there in two minutes.” James was instantly on his feet, jogging with Ryu the couple of blocks to the spot he knew Isadora would be. He now felt like a complete idiot. When he'd suggested Pepper's Cafe as a place for her to pick up Ryu, he'd only been thinking about the fact that she'd know where it was because they'd eaten there so many times as kids; he'd completely forgotten how close it was to the alley where she'd escaped from, and then been shot by, Josh.

As they rounded the last corner, Ryu started barking and jerked the leash from James' hands as he sprinted towards... a ghost. If he hadn't known better, James would have sworn he was looking at Caroline Massani, Isadora's mother. She'd died when Isadora was born, but James had seen more than enough pictures of her scattered around the Santiagos' penthouse and in Emilio's high school year books to know that Isadora could now be her twin.

“Wow. You look –”

“Just like my mom, I know.” Isadora smirked as she scrubbed her hands through Ryu's red and white fur. “So do you, thank God.”

James raised an eyebrow. “I look just like your mom?”

She rolled her eyes. “No, _idiota_. You look like _your_ mom. A lot like your uncle too though. How is he?”

“He's busy with the shelter, but he's happy.” He leaned against the wall across from her. “How's your dad?”

“He's... good.” She seemed to hesitate before she continued. “Still the same... grumpy, overprotective, intimidating to everyone except me.”

“Yeah, I remember. And your uncle?”

“Zaeed's the same but in London.”

“London? Since when?”

“There was a whole huge fight after...” She glanced down the alley for a moment and her fingers tightened in Ryu's fur. “Zaeed said it was Dad's fault, but Dad said it was Zaeed's fault because... he'd suggested hiring Josh in the first place. In the end, their _solution_ was to open up a second home office in London; they claimed they'd already been thinking about for awhile anyway so it made sense to do it then. I didn't care, I just wanted them to stop fighting and leave me alone.”

“Sounds rough,” James said quietly. He wanted to do something, hug her or... something, not just stand there like an idiot. But he couldn't quite get his feet to move. So he stood in silence while she crouched on the other side of the alley, her long dark brown hair hiding any emotion on her face.

After awhile, she stood up and crossed the gap between them, pressed the leash into his hand and threw her arms around his neck. He tentatively wrapped his arms around her, careful not to pull on the leash, and rested his chin on top of her head. They stood that way for another few minutes, still in silence, before she pulled away slightly and murmured, “I guess we should get Ryu home now.”

“We?” he asked when she spun around and threaded her arm through his.

She stuck her bottom lip out in an attempt to look completely innocent and helpless. “You're not gonna let me walk all the way back home all by myself are you?”

He laughed. “Of course not. Just didn't want Ryu to feel like he was being pushed aside as your bodyguard or something.”

“Well, he's a pretty poor example of a bodyguard if he goes running after every fluffy dog that wags her tail at him.”

“Don't be too hard on him. He's definitely not the first to follow Izzy home.”

She stopped in her tracks and turned to look at him, an unreadable expression on her face. “The little Benji girl in the park? Her name is... you named your dog after me?”

James held his breath and nodded, while he mentally slapped himself several times.

She stood and stared at him for a couple of minutes before she grinned and leaned up to kiss him on the cheek. “I think it's sweet. And she _is_ really adorable.”

“Troublemaker is what she is,” he muttered as they resumed their walk.

She smirked. “Yeah, that too.” Her cell phone rang and she paled a bit as she read the caller ID. “ _Mierda_.”

“What's wrong?”

“It's Dad. This should be a _fun_ conversation.” She sighed as she hit the button to answer the call. “Hi, Dad.... Yes, I'm fine. And yes, I know what time it is. I'm on my way home now.” She paused for a couple of minutes and James could hear her father ranting about something. “They did? How wonderful for them.” She covered the mouthpiece. “I'm so dead. One of Dad's friends apparently saw me when I was on my way to meet you at Pepper's.”

“You okay?”

She nodded. More yelling was coming from the phone and she sighed again as she put it back up to her ear. “Ryu ran off while we were at the park... Yes, Dad. Of course I was paying attention to him... Dad! Go down to your office and put money in the jar.” She narrowed her eyes at James when he laughed and he and Ryu walked a few steps ahead.

Isadora had a mischievous grin on her face when she caught up with them again a few minutes later. “Have any plans for dinner?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> troublemaker Izzy: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/357262182912888259/

**Author's Note:**

> Ryu as an adult: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/357262182912898610/


End file.
